Will Miss #226 - English, right where you need it

 A mailbox has English information (and braille) about collection times and what sort of mail goes into respective mail slots. Click to see a larger version that can be read.
When I first came to Japan, kanji (Chinese characters) were everywhere and I couldn't understand a thing. In fact, I once went into a panic in Ikebukuro station during the early days when I worked in that area because I got

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Won't Miss #226 - "why are you here?"

 
As I've mentioned before, I have talked to literally thousands of Japanese people due to the types of jobs I have done and the one question that I am thoroughly tired of answering is why I'm here. I get asked this question both in terms of why I came in the first place and why I keep living here after 20 years. One of the things you don't appreciate about living in your home country is that no

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Will Miss #225 - Beverly Hills 90210, the documentary

When I talk about high school in America, before I can complete a sentence, Japanese people tend to blurt out something to the effect of, "Oh, I know all about high school in America. I've seen Beverly Hills 90210." At first, I labored to explain that American kids do not live like the ones that you see on that T.V. program, but frankly, I don't think that anything will dissuade them from their

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Won't Miss #225 - tiny office chairs

The chair on the right would make an airplane seat seem roomy by comparison. For reference, even the chair on the left was small by Western standards (and no, these aren't kid's furniture!).
About a year ago, my venerable American office chair that I bought at Costco about a decade ago blew out a caster and I had to get a new one. Unfortunately, Costco no longer carries Western furniture so I had

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Will Miss #224 - adult tricycles

About once a week, sometimes more often than that, I see an adult riding around on what is essentially a big tricycle. Most of the time, though not always, the bicycle is being used by someone on the older side. I never saw such bikes back home, but I think they're a good idea not only for people who have problems keeping a two-wheeled bicycle stable, but also for those who take their bikes

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Won't Miss #224 - (s)Mothers and kyoiku mamas

Disclaimer (aka, please do not sue me): I'm not saying this lovely woman with her daughter is a kyoiku mama or overprotective because she's holding her little girl close. This is just a picture taken at a shrine on New Year's of a parent and seemed to fit the very general theme and is not meant to imply anything about this fine woman's character.
Though I have never been held hostage as part of

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Will Miss #223 - modesty about children

One of my students was looking for some English blogs to read to gain experience with "real" English. I chose a blog written by a foreign woman married to a Japanese man who who is currently living in Japan. I made this choice so she could relate to the experiences and perhaps understand the subjects being discussed more easily. When she looked at the blog, she was shocked by the way the woman

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Won't Miss #223 - multi-stage dental work

The last time my husband and I went in for a dental check-up and teeth cleaning, he paid in cash and I used the Japanese national health insurance. For him, he got a good chat with the dentist and a full cleaning all at once for about 500 yen (about $5) more than I paid once the deductible was paid. For me, I got a (literally) 10 second glance in my mouth and my cleaning split into two

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Will Miss #222 - a little bit of everything

The Japanese have a belief that healthy eating requires that you eat 30 different foods every day. You don't have to eat a ton of any one food, but the general presentation of food in Japan is one which incorporates variety. In the U.S., unless there is a special occasion, there are usually three parts to a meal, four at most. We have a meat, starch, and vegetable component that are sometimes

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Won't Miss #222 - outrageous oatmeal prices

Oatmeal is one of those utilitarian grains which you can buy relatively cheaply back home. In fact, besides the health benefits, one of the main reasons for choosing plain oatmeal as your breakfast grain of choice is how economical it is. A small box of (bulk, plain) oatmeal (300 grams/10.6 oz.) is nearly $4.00 (U.S.) in Japan. That's over $5 a pound and you can buy the same thing for under a

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Will Miss #221 - Western celebrities ads

This is a face which inspires you to buy tires and to believe that you are changing the world in doing so.
Now that the internet has made it difficult for any celebrity to hide the fact that he or she has chosen a fat paycheck to shill in Japan, it's not quite so novel seeing certain ads. That being said, it's still interesting seeing them firsthand, especially when the celebrities involved are

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Won't Miss #221 - "dirt" parks

Tokyo is a big city comprised of 23 main wards. Each ward is like a city itself. In fact, many students will say, "I live in (name of ward) city." Within each ward are other large neighborhoods. Most neighborhoods have one or two parks, sometimes more, within their boundaries. The vast majority of such parks are nothing more than stretches of dirt surrounded by trees and cultivated bins of

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Will Miss #220 - finding a communication key

One of the things that invariably happens when you live in a country where you do not speak the native language is that some things come up which you don't know the proper word for. This happens because some language is specialized, and you don't tend to learn it, or you learned it once, rarely used it, and simply forgot it. When this happens, you have to puzzle out a non-language-based way to

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Won't Miss #220 - paying for holiday ATM access

In the U.S., if you use the ATM of a bank other than your own, you have to pay a fee. This makes a little bit of sense because it's likely that there is some sort of special handling of electronic funds transferring between banks when you use a bank other than the one you keep an account in. In Japan, if you use an ATM of your own bank and it is a holiday or weekend, you have to pay a fee of 100

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Will Miss #219 - stockholders last

 There are a plethora of ways in which the Japanese do business differently than the rest of the world. This often causes problems for foreign partners, and for the Japanese branches of Western businesses in Japan, but certain choices are better for Japanese people. One of these differences is the order of priority when making decisions. The Japanese place customers first, employees second, and

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Won't Miss #219 - panty thieves

There used to be a commercial for video on demand services that showed a man who realizes as he's settling into bed that he forgot to return a rental DVD to the shop. He undergoes a series of difficulties as he finds a street blocked and he can't ride his bicycle except down a series of stone steps (which demolish his bicycle) and he has to run to the rental shop before midnight or pay an

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Will Miss #218 - Luna Vanilla Yogurt

Japan is a country which loves yogurt, and you can find a lot of varieties in the milk section of every market. Some of it is designed for health, and some for pure pleasure. For me, the most pleasurable of all is Luna Vanilla Yogurt. Frankly, it's so creamy, sweet and flavorful that I'd choose it over ice cream as a treat. The only thing I can't say about it is that it's particularly healthy or

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Won't Miss #218 - train seat pariah

One of the earliest indications that you are regarded as unappealing in the eyes of some Japanese people is the fact that they will get up and leave their seat if you (a foreigner) sit next to them. There's also the fact that people will choose not to sit next to you if you are a foreigner. Some foreigners believe that this is somehow the result of foreign folks doing something "wrong". They

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Will Miss #217 - koma inu

In front of some homes, and most temples in Japan, you see a pair of statues or figures of stylized dogs called "koma inu". They are meant as guardians and are related to Chinese guardian lions ("fu lions"). One of them always has its mouth open and the other has its mouth closed. They are like this because one makes the sound "ah" and the other "hum" (or "um"). I'm always interested in the

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Won't Miss #217 - cherry blossom viewing (the bad)

Many foreigners who have never been to Japan or who have only been here as tourists love to wax poetic about how zen and peaceful the cherry blossom viewing season is. They talk about the appreciation of nature and how it's a time to get together with family or friends and meditate. These are people who don't know what the vast majority of people engage in cherry blossom viewing for. It's really

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Will Miss #216 - cherry blossoms (the good)

The cherry blossoms in Japan are undeniably beautiful, and in the right spots, you can see the sort of thing that you dream of as a part of Japanese culture and life here. The blossoms fall gently from the trees like snow that has been tinted pink.

Walking through a nice park during the cherry blossom season can be a very peaceful and sublime experience, and I will miss it.

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Won't Miss #216 - super narrow streets

I don't drive a car, so you'd think that narrow streets wouldn't be a problem for me. You'd be wrong. There are several narrow connecting streets around my apartment. All of them are so small that a small truck can barely pass by them and when there is an electric or telephone pole, they have to slow to a crawl and cautiously creep by these slightly narrower spaces. Of course, trucks that do

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Will Miss #215 - discretion

There are vending machines everywhere in Japan, but I've noticed that certain types of machines (e.g., condom machines, marital aids dispensers) are discretely placed while others are out in the open (e.g., rice, soda). They're either behind barriers or in places where there isn't much foot traffic. I can't say for sure, but I think the positioning as well as the fact that these types of items

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Won't Miss #215 - shopping in Shibuya

Shibuya is one of the biggest shopping districts in Tokyo, and it is favored by young people. There are a lot of interesting places there including a wide variety of department and clothing stores, restaurants and the Apple Store nearest my home. While I like the places you can go to in Shibuya, I hate actually being there because of the crowds. Shibuya feels like it is too small for its

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Will Miss #214 - neighborly introductions

A towel I was given as a gift by a new neighbor when he introduced himself.
In Japan, there is a custom in which neighbors go door-to-door and introduce themselves when they first move into an apartment building. While this custom is not followed by every single Japanese person, it is done about 80% of the time in my experience. Usually, the new neighbor introduces himself or herself with some

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Won't Miss #214 - so many trash bins

I'm all for recycling, and I don't mind making the effort to sort my trash (though I'm less keen on the inefficient and troublesome washing of that trash). There is, unfortunately, an inevitable side effect to trash sorting and that's having to have a lot of different bins to place different trash in (or, in lieu of that, going through your garbage and separating it later which is disgusting

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Will Miss #213 - shopping in the rain

Shopping in Tokyo has always been stressful for me. I'm a person who is prone to feeling overstimulated. It's not something I can control. Some people have nervous systems which make lots of noise, crowds, lights, etc. overbearing, and I'm one of them. The shopping itself is often interesting, but the oppressive sense I get from being surrounded by oblivious, noisy crowds makes it an odious task

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Won't Miss #213 - The Daily Yomiuri

The Daily Yomiuri is the English language paper with the most subscribers in Japan. It's a pretty good newspaper at an economical price for those who want to enjoy a hard copy and keep up on the news in Japan. In fact, my husband and I subscribed to the Daily Yomiuri for quite some time. Eventually though, our status as subscribers was taken for granted, and the agency that delivered it decided

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Will Miss #212 - mikoshi

Summers in Japan are marked by local festivals. My earliest memories of summer in Japan include seeing men dressed in happi coats noisily (and joyously in most cases) hauling a portable shrine or mikoshi through the streets. This is not only a very "Japanese" thing, but also represents people from the same neighborhood coming together. It builds community spirit and keeps bonds strong.

I'll

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Won't Miss #212 - English warnings

The Japanese sales ethic is all about copious amounts of courtesy. You would be hard-pressed to find a written warning or caution for customers in Japanese which was written in rude language. On the other hand, it is quite easy to find rude or outright profane messages for customers written in English. You also find that many security-related messages are written only in English. In particular,

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Will Miss #211 - Super Heart Chiple

Cherry blossom viewers with a red bag of "Super Heart Chiple" (left) as part of their snack assortment (and, of course, the ever present mayonnaise).
Sometimes there are incredibly enjoyable treats lurking in the kid's snacks and cheap food bins of your local markets and convenience stores. Since they are made by less well-known (at least among foreigners) companies and can be had for less than

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Won't Miss #211 - archaic notions about gay men

A T-shirt worn by a young man serving food at a summer festival in Tokyo.
Many Japanese people have outdated ideas about what gay men want or are like. Many of them believe that gay men want to be women, and that they dress up and act like women. They think that some of them hate women because they view them as "competition" and that you can discern a gay man from his movements, speaking style

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Will Miss #210 - the longer intestines theory

This is okonomiyaki, a type of pancake filled with junk. It only resembles intestines. Japanese people can digest this just fine as it is indigenous cuisine.
The overwhelming majority of Japanese people who I meet believe that they have special digestive tracts. In particular, they believe that Japanese people "as a race" (their concept, not mine) have longer intestines than people from other

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